Intentions to Marry, 1885

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840397, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 413

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 1885

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1196	21 May 1885	Joseph Loader Grauper Mary Louisa Ryan	Joseph Loader Granger Mary Louisa Ryan 💍 1885/1653	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	34 24	Oamaru Oamaru	13 years 3 years	St Luke's Church Oamaru	85/1699	21 May 1885	Revd Algernon Gifford Church of England
1197	21 May 1885	Hector McLeod Elizabeth Lanyon	Hector McLeod Elizabeth Langon 💍 1885/1646	Bachelor Spinster	Driver Servant	21 22	Oamaru North Road Oamaru	12 years 5 years	St Paul's Church Oamaru	85/1715	21 May 1885	Revd A. B. Todd Presbyterian
1198	22 May 1885	William Henry Ridsdale Miss Mary Brain	William Henry Ridsdale Alice Mary Brain 💍 1885/1645	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Servant	27 22	Oamaru Brain Street Oamaru	6 years 8 years	The House of Heather Brain Street Oamaru	85/1714	22 May 1885	Revd A. B. Todd Presbyterian
1199	26 May 1885	William Clyde Maggie Crombie	William Clyde Mewhinney Maggie Crombie 💍 1885/1647	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	29 24	Oamaru Oamaru	4 days 18 months	The South Australian Boarding House Oamaru	85/1716	26 May 1885	Revd A. B. Todd Presbyterian
1200	27 May 1885	James Boyle Bridget McDevitt	James Boyle Bridget McDavitt 💍 1885/1634	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Cleaner Servant	21 23	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 2 years	St Patrick's Church Oamaru	85/1704	27 May 1885	Very Revd William Coleman Roman Catholic
1201	3 June 1885	John Dinneen Harriet Louisa Shalders	John Dinnean Harriet Louisa Shalders 💍 1885/1637	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 22	Oamaru North Road near Oamaru	12 years 2 years	The House of Thomas Shalders North Road near Oamaru	85/1707	3 June 1885	Revd James McGregor D.D. Presbyterian
1202	6 June 1885	John Young Louisa Abercrombie	John Young Louisa Abercrombie Easton 💍 1885/1677 John Young Annie Anderson 💍 1885/2665	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Manager	28 26	Pukeuri Easton Pukeuri	3 days 9 years	The House of Mr William Easton	85/1723	6 June 1885	Revd John Steven Presbyterian
1203	27 June 1885	William Ormandy Isabella McKenzie	William Ormandy Isabella McKenzie 💍 1885/2625	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Servant	30 22	Kakanui Kakanui	5 years 10 years	The House of Mrs William McKenzie Kakanui	85/2516	27 June 1885	Revd George Lindsay Kakanui Presbyterian

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).